For Bonni and Grace

If you think you've arrived, then you probably haven't even started.


Chuck Swindoll

Giovanni's Birthday

Well, we are alive.

You can read here to find out what's been going on with us.

During our two week sick break, there were a few bright spots.  The best one was that Giovanni had his 2nd birthday.  Even though we didn't feel like having a big party, we did have a fun family celebration.  Here is what we did.

After school, we went out to eat at Habib's.  Not a familiar restaurant chain to Americans, but the kids like it, it was affordable, and had a play place.  Bingo!

The kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline and playing in the ball pit and climbing thing.

We "feasted" on beef and cheese esfihas and french fries.

There were plenty of balloons and decorations that made it really fun for the kids.  However, Giovanni was scared of this Taz.

He kept checking it out...

On the way out of the restaurant, Giovanni, Anderson and Carys got balloon swords and hats.  That was pretty exciting.

We then went home and had a little 2 year old celebration.

The kids blew bubbles and played while Carys and Benay decorated a cake.

At around 4:00 we started trying to have a little video celebration with Bronwyn.  Due to our computer illnesses, that took a while to get worked out, but thanks to our resident computer expert (Ansley), we finally managed.

Giovanni's first gift to open was 3 cars from the Disney movie Cars.  He LOVED them, and pretty much had eyes for no other presents after that......

until.....he opened Woody.

 Then it was Woody and the cars constantly for the rest of the day (and the next few days as well.)

And that was the 2 year old birthday.

While we would have liked to have done something more for his birthday, I don't think Giovanni cared.  He loved his cake, gifts, and especially playing time with his brothers and sisters.

He is a fun little two year old.